WASHINGTON — In a court filing on Saturday, officials announced that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith had resigned on Friday.
The action was anticipated prior to Donald Trump, the president-elect, taking the oath of office.
Smith’s investigation into Trump’s purported meddling in the 2020 election is anticipated to be published shortly. Trump has refuted the accusations.
According to a footnote in a federal court filing, the Special Counsel finished his work and turned in his final secret report on January 7, 2025, and departed from the Department on January 10.
The footnote was included in a Justice Department document where the government requested that Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon refrain from extending a limitation that is now preventing the release of a portion of Smith’s report.
Trump was indicted on charges pertaining to claims that he tried to get the 2020 election results overturned. Before the case was dropped, he had pleaded not guilty. Following Trump’s election in 2024, Smith’s federal charges were dropped. It has long been the Justice Department’s policy to not bring charges against a sitting president.
In November 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith. Smith’s appointment was in “the public interest” at the time, according to Garlands, since Biden was also preparing to seek for a second term and Trump had declared his intention to run. According to Garland’s 2022 statement, Smith’s appointment “underscores the Department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters.” Garland had been chosen by Biden.
Smith was in charge of looking into claims that Trump mishandled confidential papers and his purported attempts to rig the 2020 election.
Although Cannon dropped the lawsuit in July 2024, ruling that Smith was improperly nominated and funded, the former president was also charged in the case involving the sensitive information. Trump entered a not guilty plea to every allegation.
Smith was regularly chastised by the president-elect, who declared in October that he would “fire him within two seconds” of assuming office.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by a Trump representative.
A federal appeals court said earlier this week that Smith’s report on Trump’s purported attempts to rig the 2020 election could be made public by the Justice Department. However, Cannon’s order that the report’s distribution be postponed for three days so that Trump can decide whether to challenge the decision further was upheld by the court.